Jacob Fuchs

In recent years, effective Dirac systems have received a lot of attention in solid state physics. These are systems whose dispersion can effectively be described by a Dirac cone, the most prominent examples being graphene and topological insulators (TIs). These systems exhibit intriguing phenomena---for example, TIs can host perfectly transmitted modes or, in conjunction with superconductors, Majorana zero modes. This work deals with superconducting heterostructures of both of the aforementioned materials and examines transport phenomena as well as the formation of sub-gap states in such systems: In the first chapter, superconducting bilayer graphene with a chemisorbed adatom is investigated and the existence of peculiar sub-gap states, so-called Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states, is shown. The second chapter deals with T junction devices made out of three-dimensional (3D) TI nanowires. Together with proximity induced superconductivity in one arm and external magnetic fields, this setup allows for the occurrence of crossed Andreev reflection, including perfect crossed Andreev reflection, and negative nonlocal conductance. In the third chapter, Josephson junctions of 3D TI nanowires are investigated. The origin of unusual, experimentally observed supercurrent oscillations in dependence of a parallel magnetic field is examined in a semiclassical analysis.

Early in his life, and again in maturity, Horace sought to turn his poetic skills to the uses of moral and aesthetic discussion in the series of didactic works translated here. In the Satires, Horace adopts one persona after another, each of which reduces himself to absurdity in the process of trying to argue a point of view about the ethical or artistic life. The form of the Epistles permits Horace to write with particular intimacy, addressing moral issues in a persuasive yet informal way. The third epistle, The Art of Poetry, on the other hand, is a formal poem addressed to the emperor Augustus, and seeks to educate the poetic taste of the ruler of the western world. Jacob Fuchs is Associate Professor of English at California State University, Hayward. He is the editor of Virgil: The Aeneid (Pengiun Classics, 1991), and author of Reading Horace (Edinburgh UP, 1967), The Imagery and Poetry of Lucretius (Edinburgh UP, 1969, reprint Bristol CP, 1994).